FULL CONTACT INFORMATON: [sample letter follows, next page]

Chancellor J. Michael Bishop University of 513 Parnassus Ave, S-126 San Francisco, CA 94143 email: [email protected]

Nigel Bunnett Office of Research, Box 0962 University of California 513 Parnassus Ave San Francisco, CA 94143 email: [email protected]

Cc: Senator Senator Congresswoman Ellen Tauscher Congresswoman

Senator Barbara Boxer Senate, 112 Hart Senate Office Building Washington, D.C. 20510 ph: 202-224-3553 web email form: http://boxer.senate.gov/contact/webform.cfm

Senator Dianne Feinstein , 331 Hart Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510 ph: 202-224-3841; fax: 202-228-3954 web email form: http://feinstein.senate.gov/email.html website: http://feinstein.senate.gov/contact.html

Representative Ellen Tauscher 1034 Longworth HOB Washington, DC 20515 ph: 202-225-1880; fax: 202-225-5914 web email form: http://www.house.gov/tauscher/IMA/get_address.htm

Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi 2371 Rayburn HOB Washington, D.C. 20515 ph: 202-225-4965; fax: 202-225-8259 email: [email protected] website: http://www.house.gov/pelosi/contact/contact.html Chancellor J. Michael Bishop University of California, 513 Parnassus Ave, S-126 San Francisco, CA 94143 email: [email protected]

Nigel Bunnett Office of Research, Box 0962 University of California, 513 Parnassus Ave San Francisco, CA 94143 email: [email protected]

Cc: Senator Barbara Boxer, Senator Dianne Feinstein, Congresswoman Ellen Tauscher, Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi

Dear Mr. Bishop and Mr. Bunnett:

I write to respectfully request a moratorium on dog experiments at the University of California San Francisco. Please do not subject 750 dogs to invasive procedures and death over three years until this project undergoes objective assessment by agencies unrelated to the university.

For these controversial experiments, congestive heart failure is induced in healthy dogs surgically implanted with one or two pacemakers configured to pace rapidly. Any surviving dogs are destroyed. Mitral valves within other dogs’ hearts are torn to reverse blood flow and stimulate congestive heart failure. Dogs who do not perish within six months are “euthanized” in order to extract their hearts for additional analysis. Unweaned puppies, some only one day old, are test models for another heart study that fails to generate new information.

I am dismayed UCSF intends to carry out these experiments, in light of its current USDA citation on 61 counts of animal welfare violations between 2001 and 2003. Please consider non-animal research technologies that can fulfill study criterion.

Many facilities, including at least 70% of medical schools, currently meet project goals with in vitro analysis, cell imaging, epidemiology, computer simulators, videos and mathematical modeling, genetic and protein analysis, clinical research, human brain mapping technologies, autopsy/biopsy studies, advanced MRI imaging, and other non-animal modalities.

Animal studies can jeopardize human safety with misleading data. According to a 2004 paper published in the British Medical Journal, “[animal] research is poorly conducted and not thoroughly evaluated.” The scientists found animal studies irrelevant in many cases, due to vast inconsistencies between species. They described contrived illness or injury in animals as incongruous with the human condition and said drug doses differ substantially from those administered to humans.

Indeed, the Journal of the American Medical Association reports 51% of animal-tested drugs have “serious adverse effects not detected prior to approval.” Please do not squander any more taxpayer money on invalid and inhumane experiments. I strongly encourage UCSF to pursue efficacious research alternatives that yield data applicable to human health.

Thank you,